Wednesday, June 1, 2011

The Elemental Journal by Tammy Kushnir

I’m a visual person. I’ve also found homemade gifts to be the most meaningful.

The Elemental Journal, with its exquisite photography and step by step guide of how-to crafts, tapped into my love of visual aesthetics and my thirst for all things creative.

I’m not sure which attracted me most, the vintage appeal, the use of ordinarily discarded items, or the nature-inspired projects.

Although the crafts detailed in this beautifully assembled book wouldn’t necessarily be what I’d spend time making, when I described the ideas to my sister, she sounded enthusiastic about it. The Elemental Journal would make a great gift.

I should also add the artsy projects weren’t exactly what I’d expected. There were few actual journal ideas, but rather an abundance of decorative expressions. When I read the word journal I was expecting pages where I could write, but the definition of journal throughout this book veered from my expectations.

Finally, I loved this line from Jen Osborn, “My advice to anyone wanting to create is to roll up your sleeves and get messy. Forget all the rules you’ve been taught, go out on a limb and try something new. Do things ‘they’ say can’t be done, but most of all, just GO MAKE ART!”

Do you enjoy craft books?

*Yeah for all 401 followers! When I’m certain the kinks have been worked out with Blogger comments, I’ll have a giveaway to celebrate.

**I received The Elemental Journal free and reviewed it as a part of BookSneeze.

I'm very narrow in the crafts I enjoy... to the point that I'd say I'm not really a crafty person. I like oil painting, batik, scrapbooking, but not making little things out of other things. The cover of this book really appeals to me, though, and I suspect I would enjoy browsing through it just to see the photos of "nature-inspired projects." :)